Stefanutto indication was my responsibility

The Minister of Social Security, Carlos Lupi, was responsible for the nomination of the president of the INSS (National Institute of Social Security), Alessandro Stefanutto, the target of operation of the PF (Federal Police) that investigates deviation of resources in the body. Stefanutto was removed from office this Wednesday (23.br.2025) by the Federal Court.

“Doctor Stefanutto’s indication is my entire responsibility”The minister said in conversation with journalists about the operation. Lupi justified that the INSS president gave “Demonstrations of being [um funcionário] exemplar”.

However, the minister said it was necessary to wait for the investigations to be completed so that the investigated ones “To burn in a fire without first giving them the right of defense.”

Also present in the interview were the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, the Director General of PF, Andrei Rodrigues, and the Minister of CGU (Comptroller General of the Union), Vinicius Marques.

Lewandowski stated that the objective of the operation is “To prevent retirees from being continually injured”.

“It is an initial operation, but it is not extraordinary, it is part of the set of operations that the ministry has developed against organized crime”said the minister.

Understand

According to police, unions and associations carried out an INSS ACT (A ACT to offer benefits to associated retirees. Among the services were: legal aid, health insurance and funeral aid. This agreement allowed the entities to perform a discount of “Associative monthly fees” directly on the payroll of beneficiaries.

Such entities registered retirees without their authorization, using false documents and signatures.

Investigations point out that these companies had no structure to maintain the services offered.

With this, they falsified signatures to associate the pensioner with entities and perform automatic discounts on the payroll of beneficiaries.

Minister Vinicius Marques stated that the CGU conducted a survey in 29 entities registered with the INSS and found that 70% of these had not delivered the necessary documents.

According to the PF, R $ 6.3 billion from the payment of pensioners from 2019 to 2024 were discounted. The minister warned that in this amount there is no distinction between legal and illegal charges. This will be answered during the continuation of the investigation.

The AGU interviewed 1,300 retirees who had payroll discounts. The result was that 97% of retirees did not recognize being part of the entities or were unaware of discounts.

Operation without discount

The PF (Federal Police) carried out this Wednesday (23.abr.br.2025) the operation without discount, which investigates deviations for benefits of the INSS (National Institute of Social Security).

“Investigations identified the existence of irregularities related to the discounts of associative monthly fees applied to social security benefits, especially pensions and pensions, granted by the National Institute of Social Security”said the PF, in a statement.

Investigations began in 2023 within the INSS after the agency’s employees suspect the number of discounts made by the entity and the complaints of improper discounts made by the pensioners. When internal analysis identified evidence of crime, the PF was called.

The operation was supported by CGU. 700 federal police officers and 80 controllership officials were mobilized to comply with 211 search and seizure warrants and sequestration order of goods of R $ 1 billion. 6 temporary arrest warrants were also issued. Read the federative entities where the warrants were fulfilled:

• Federal District;
• Alagoas;
• Amazonas;
• Ceará;
• Goiás;
• Maranhão;
• Mato Grosso do Sul;
• Minas Gerais;
• Paraná;
• Pernambuco;
• Rio Grande do Norte;
• Rio Grande do Sul;
• São Paulo;

The operation resulted in the removal of the president of the INSS, Alessandro Stefanutto, and 4 other servers. They are:

• Jorge Vasconcelos Jr.-General Coordinator;
• Vanderlei Barbosa dos Santos – Benefit Director with the citizen;
• Giovani Batista Fassarella Spiecker-Attorney General for Customer Service Support;
• Jucimar Fonseca da Silva-General Coordinator of Payments and Benefits.

A federal policeman was also removed on suspicion of assisting the investigated group.